Panel moves to keep Potrero clinic open

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, February 16, 2000

Bowing to pressure from health advocates, The City's Health Commissi on has decided not to approve the closure of a Potrero Hill Health Center and a reduction in outpatient mental health services.

To make up the difference, the commission on Tuesday ordered Health Director Mitchell Katz to increase his budget proposal for the 2000-01 fiscal year to $25 million from his original request of $18 million in order to cover anticipated deficits.

The commission took the action despite an earlier order to Katz from Mayor Willie Brown not to ask for additional funding in the upcoming year after The City allocated $66 million to the Health Department over the past two years to help it stay ahead of rising costs and falling revenue.

Katz's original budget cut proposal included the sale of the health center's building, the closure of the outpatient pharmacy at San Francisco General Hospital, a reduction in funding for outpatient services to uninsured and the poor and other savings measures.

Katz's plan was to use the savings to pay for more housing for homeless people under the hospital's care, immunizations and a clinic to take care of skin abscesses that frequently land injection drug users in the hospital, with an aim to keep people out of S.F. General's crowded wards and emergency room, where care is costly.

The proposed cuts, particularly the closures of the 25-year-old clinic that serves 6,000 largely poor San Franciscans and the pharmacy, drew immediate criticism from health advocates

The commission on Tuesday did not act to save the pharmacy.

More than 200 people showed up at the meeting to speak out against the proposed closure of the Potrero Hill clinic and any discontinuation of funding to a clinic consortium that provides health care on referral to The City's uninsured and poor.

Speakers also urged the commission to keep the S.F. General pharmacy open, but the commission went forward with plans to close the facility at a savings of about $2 million per year.

Katz assured the audience that The City was working with major pharmacies to provide the same services clients received at S.F. General's pharmacy at the same prices.

Katz will submit his budget request to the mayor's budget office for review. Brown's spokeswoman Kandace Bender said the mayor's budget staff would review the funding proposals, but made no promises.

"We need to take a look at what the rest of The City's needs are," Bender said. "No one's saying yes or no at this point. It's all got to go on the table for review." &lt;